Franks Lab
Principal Investigator: Kevin Franks
Institution: Duke University (Durham, NC)
Primary Subfield: Neuroscience
Recruitment Status: ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
Abstract Dynamics of Olfactory Processing: Segmentation in the Piriform Cortex The proposed research aims to uncover fundamental principles of sensory processing by examining how the piriform cortex (PCx) in the mammalian brain encodes and represents olfactory information. This work is critical for advancing our understanding of neural coding, which has broad implications for sensory neuroscience and can inform approaches to neurological disorders that affect sensory perception and processing. Our study leverages innovative techniques to record from hundreds of PCx neurons in awake, head-fixed mice while using optogenetics to stimulate the olfactory bulb (OB) in precise, spatiotemporally defined patterns and manipulate neural circuits with novel tools to reveal underlying mechanisms. These methods will allow us to test our overarching hypothesis that the PCx segments incoming OB input into discrete temporal packets within a respiratory cycle. To this end, we propose the following aims: Aim 1: Determine the temporal selectivity of PCx responses to OB stimulation. We hypothesize that PCx neurons jointly encode both OB input and respiration phase. We will test this aim by delivering b…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R01DC022619-02: Dynamics of Olfactory Processing: Segmentation in the Piriform Cortex (2026)
- 5R01DC015525-09: Odor Coding in Piriform Cortex (2026)
- 5R01DC015525-08: Odor Coding in Piriform Cortex (2025)
- 1R01DC022619-01: Dynamics of Olfactory Processing: Segmentation in the Piriform Cortex (2025)
- 5R01DC015525-07: Odor Coding in Piriform Cortex (2024)
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